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How Ian Holm’s Return in ‘Alien: Romulus’ Brings SAG-AFTRA’s Digital Replicas Work Into Focus


The late Ian Holm's appearance in 'Alien: Romulus' underscores the role of the SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement.

A recent Visual Effects Society panel explored the delicate work to bring Holm’s likeness to “Alien: Romulus,” which introduces the late actor as a new android named Rook. Legacy Effects supervisor Shane Mahan related that the VFX team was unable to locate an original head cast of the English actor from “Alien” archives, but they did track down one that was created in the late ‘90s when Holm played the role of Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” films. Production VFX supervisor Eric Barba added that 4K scans of the original film were a useful guide in creating the performance and also gave them training data, as the digital work including the use of AI-enabled techniques from startup Metaphysic.

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